After a city staff-produced slide presentation and public meeting on Monday, Oak Ridge City Council voted to allow the city to apply for a state revolving loan as part of the city’s sewer rehabilitation project.

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By Beverly Majors

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Beverly Majors

Posted Jan. 18, 2013 at 4:23 PM
Updated Jan 18, 2013 at 4:27 PM

By Beverly Majors

Posted Jan. 18, 2013 at 4:23 PM
Updated Jan 18, 2013 at 4:27 PM

Oak Ridge, Tenn.

After a city staff-produced slide presentation and public meeting on Monday, Oak Ridge City Council voted to allow the city to apply for a state revolving loan as part of the city’s sewer rehabilitation project.

The public hearing was held during the regular Council meeting to provide information to the public about the application process for a Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF).

The SRF, if approved, will be a total of $18 million “to construct the Wastewater Collection System Rehabilitation Project and the resulting impact on monthly water/sewer bills,” according to information from the city.

The state requires the public meeting and documentation of the meeting before the city can submit the application to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). Once TDEC has reviewed the documentation, TDEC will then provide the city with a “formal loan application,” which will come back to Council for approval, and then returned to TDEC.

The city has received two previous SRF loans, in 1998 and 2002, and the water/sewer rehabilitation project using money from the 2002 loan is currently under way.

“The state has prescribed this process,” Public Works Director Gary Cinder said during his slide presentation.

Cinder said the city will be sending the following documents to the state: the wastewater collection system remediation plan’s schedules and costs, the city’s approved September 2012 resolution on the remediation plan sent to the Environmental Protection Agency, and the SRF loan information and history.

The city is under an EPA mandate to rehabilitate its 70-year-old sewer system by the year 2015 or face fines. The city received the EPA Administrative Order in 2010 and although city staff had been working to improve the system for about 15 years, the EPA wanted quicker results.

The city’s rehab plan will cost an estimated $23,909,800 to complete.

The request for SRF funding is a subsidized $4 million loan that contains a 10 percent principal forgiveness and an unsubsidized $14 million loan. The remaining project cost will be funded by about $2 million from an existing Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund loan with the balance of $3,090,800 coming from local share funding.

Council members asked several questions about the proposed loan and how it could be used, if received, and about future meetings with EPA officials to see if any portion of the project could be delayed further.

Cinder said the loan “has to be” used for the EPA project and City Manager Mark Watson said city officials will meet with EPA officials in February.

Several citizens, including former Council member Ellen Smith, expressed support for the loan application process.

However, Council member Trina Baughn asked that the city staff “cease its pursuit of these loans” until after the city had “exhausted negotiations” with the EPA. Her motion failed to get a second.